When you look at Aliya Naim or Nadia, they don’t want you to see objects of beauty, nor do they want you to see women constrained by societal standards.

Instead, they say, they want to be judged by their intellect and personalities. They say it’s the reason they don’t show too much more.

Both Muslim American women cover themselves from head to toe in adherence to their faith’s promotion of modesty and humility. Like most Muslim women who cover, they do so only in front of men who are not in their immediate family.

Aliya, a 20-year-old student at the University of Georgia, wears the hijab, or headscarf. She also wears clothes that cover everything but her face and hands, attire that is also referred to as hijab.

“You often see in many societies women being objectified because of how they look or being disrespected,” she says. The hijab, she says, helps “force people who may be otherwise unwilling to take the focus off of our physical appearance.”

Nadia (who asked that her last name not be given) similarly covers most of her body and goes a step further by covering her face—excluding her eyes—with a piece of fabric known as the niqab.

The 25-year-old mother of two doesn’t believe it’s a practice that Islam mandates, but that it draws her closer to God.

“When you love someone, you want to be more pleasing to them,” she says. “…You want to do anything you can and constantly talk to them and know more about them, and that’s how I feel also with my creator.”

While the number of Muslim women in America who wear the hijab or niqab has never been recorded, some suggest that there was an increase in Muslim women covering after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as many wished to express their identities in the wake of anti-Muslim sentiment.

After the attacks, says Georgetown University Professor Yvonne Haddad, more Muslim women became spokespeople for their religion.

“The women have sort of become the banner of Islam,” said Haddad, co-author of Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. “The little scarf is saying, ‘I am Muslim, and I have a presence here.’”
Aliya, whose Muslim parents taught her that covering was part of Islam, began wearing the hijab when she was 12. But she says it was her choice.

She says it protected her from focusing intensely on her weight and appearance, as her friends did. At her small all-girls middle and high schools, her peers didn’t give her much trouble about it.

It was also shortly after the attacks on 9/11 and she, too, felt a need to express her identity and combat Muslim stereotypes.

Nadia, on the other hand, did not cover for most of her life. She said she first started wearing the hijab in college after studying Islam more closely and growing closer to her faith.

She added the niqab to her wardrobe after about a year. She says the decision came after a conversation with other Muslim women who covered.

“When I actually got to know them [the women], I understood that they were intelligent people still and they were still full of life and had their own character,” she said. “It didn’t take away from them. But what it added to them, to me, was this increased love for the creator.”

She says that, contrary to the common misconception of Muslim women being forced to cover, her husband, who’d converted to Islam, had nothing to do with her decision. In fact, it came as a surprise to him, though he supported the move.

Bans and backlash

Last month, France’s lower house of parliament passed a ban on wearing any veils that cover the face, including the niqab and burqa—a similar covering that additionally conceals the eyes with a mesh panel—in public.
A short time later, Syria’s minister of higher education issued a ruling outlawing the niqab in universities across the Muslim-majority country.

There have also been bans on the hijab over the years.

Turkey first banned the headscarf in universities and public buildings in the 1980’s, however the law was not strictly enforced until 1997.

In 2004, France banned religious symbols, including the wearing of the hijab, in public primary and secondary schools.

Although the United States is not expected to follow suit, Nadia feels she has already begun to experience the effects of anti-covering sentiment spreading in her home of Lilburn, Georgia.

She says she has been denied entry into grocery stores and has been verbally harassed by strangers. Once, when she was at a gas station, she says a man a man pulled off of the road, swerved his truck in front of her pump, and took a close-up picture.

She watched him speed back out of the station and saw a large sign on the side of his vehicle advertising a website called trickledownterrorism.com. “I was so disturbed and I cried, and I couldn’t understand it. I just felt like, why would he do this?” Nadia said.

She often encounters people who tell her that her way of dress is something that Americans don’t do, that she should leave her foreign beliefs behind. As an African-American born and raised in the United States, such statements are often difficult to hear.

“I’ve already told someone in a store, ‘I’m from the nation’s capital, lady. I’m sorry to put it that way but please stop telling me we don’t do that here because I’m from here, and I am here. My family’s raised here, I live here...You might not do it here, but I do it here.’”

While Aliya still experiences frequent stares and often feels misunderstood by the general public, she says that wearing the hijab has also brought positive experiences, including opportunities to explain her religion and answer humorous questions.

“I think the one that always makes me laugh is, ‘Do you shower in that?’ And I always say to that, well, do you shower in your clothes? There’s your answer.”

Once, a young boy at a national park approached her and told her that she looked like the character Padme from Star Wars. She still laughs about that one.

Misconceptions

Aliya and Nadia feel that the biggest hardship they face is others’ assumptions about their beliefs.

Both say that the most common misconception about Muslim women is that they are oppressed, and that their religion views them as inferior to men.
For instance, French President Nicolas Sarkozy referred to the burqa as “a sign of subservience… a sign of lowering,” earlier this year.

Nadia disagrees.

“I’ve never seen anybody interview a Muslim woman and ask her if she’s oppressed. Or if she feels oppressed for wearing what she wears, or if she’s oppressed in her home,” said Nadia.

Aliya says that if women are oppressed, it is the fault of people and culture, not Islam.

“There’s a saying by the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, that women are the equal halves of men. And from what I’ve read and studied about Islam, that’s very much how Islam views women,” she added.

Aliya says that she has never met an American Muslim woman who was forced to wear the hijab or niqab.

“I actually know more people who wear it against their parents’ wishes than unwillingly in compliance with their wishes,” she said.

To be sure, there are countries that require women to cover. Iranian law says women have to wear a hijab in public, while Saudi Arabia requires Muslim women to wear the hijab.

Moving forward

Despite some hurtful experiences in public, Nadia is content with her decision to wear niqab and says she feels a distinct difference in how men respect her now as opposed to her earlier days of low-cut shirts and formfitting pants.

Aliya also feels a joy in wearing the hijab, she says.

“And I think that definitely what’s in the heart is most important,” she said. “And your outward appearance should be a manifestation of that, not something to disguise what you really think or feel or believe.”

soundoff(1,728 Responses)

Are Muslim woman infatuated with b-rated ninja films? I think so. Why else would someone dress like this in public!

August 23, 2010 at 8:34 pm |

BOB from toronto

Obviously the hijab and what niquab or whatever is a subservient garment. It tells people that the woman belongs to a man as an object. Why don't you see muslim men wearing the same garments? No comment right?

August 23, 2010 at 8:33 pm |

HotDog129

Are Muslim woman infatuated with b-rated ninja films? I think so. Why else would someone dress like this in public.

August 23, 2010 at 8:33 pm |

Stop Islamisation

Enough is enough.

Ps* When in Rome..........act like the Romans do.

If you don't like the system in US, GO BACK TO your Saudia Arabia to your brother and his friends and how they share their women there.

Kate is obviously prejudiced, and an eager Muslim supporter, how much do they pay you?

Cheap crap.

August 23, 2010 at 8:31 pm |

Jane

Aliya and Nadia claim they want to be judged by their intellect and personalities. I question the intellect of one who enables men to remain weak, and never learn to control themselves around the opposite sex. And I would not be able to detect WHAT their personality was behind a mask. I cannot neither relate to nor understand this behavior. I could not understand the ritual of my fellow Catholics wearing doilies on their heads, veils over their faces or habits over their bodies. Thank God we evolved. I can only hope and pray these women learn to do the same. They are failing to evolve, and they are preventing their male counterparts to do the same.

August 23, 2010 at 8:31 pm |

Jeckyll

It's obviously a facial hair issue.

August 23, 2010 at 8:27 pm |

cackle

@Jeckyll

LOL

August 24, 2010 at 6:12 am |

Ricardo Martinez

When you compare American Women that dress how they want to, the majority of American Women dress liberated, and those women have earned the right to do so. If they are beaten, or told to cover up, they will defend themselves, and is has not degrated them in any way or form. I respect a woman that does not have to justify how she dresses, after all God Made women, This whole thing about covering your faces, is just like someone wanting a tattoo, don't bring God into this, just be yourself. Cover your eyes, after all that is the gateway to your spirit. American Women, Stay Free!!

August 23, 2010 at 8:27 pm |

carlie

CNN please stop promoting the erroneous notion that women are responsible for attacks upon their person based on what they wear.

August 23, 2010 at 8:25 pm |

Tony

Well here I am posting with all the other voiceless, frustrated, powerless people. The high mucky muks don't read these rants so we are alone, venting at each other. Here is my rant – US constitution mandates separation of Church (Mosque) and State.. the goal of any muslim true believer is sharia law... which is based on the Koran, that flies in the face of our constitutional right not to be dominated by other peoples superstitions.

August 23, 2010 at 8:24 pm |

jake

I grew up in a town with an actual mosque. The Muslim kids didn't go to public school, they went to the Islamic school, but I did meet some of them. These were supposedly very moderate Muslims, not Arabic people. But the way these families treated their daughters was something that really, really bothered me. I'm from a conservative family, I never put much stock in feminism but even as a teenage boy, the way these Muslim families treated their daughters like second class citizens made me value some of what the feminists in the US had accomplished.

The Muslim girls I knew growing up were not treated equal. They were not free to socialize with the local town kids, especially boys. One family I knew, the brothers were free to go to parties, drink, sleep around, the girls weren't allowed to go to the mall without a male guardian watching them. The message from these families was very clear- the boys can do what they want, the girls are owned by their families who control who they talk to, who they socialize with, and what influences they have. I'm sure those girls would say wearing a hijab was their choice, no different than those fundamental Mormon girls would say they chose to follow their parents' crazy beliefs.

August 23, 2010 at 8:24 pm |

Michael

It would also be useful for those interested in bank robbery.

August 23, 2010 at 8:23 pm |

mmohammad

i guess people didn't read the article all the way through, the woman that covers her face is afrian american (not an immigrant unless you count slaves as immigrants). So where do you exactly want her to go? Its funny when I can wear a KKK sign in public but I can't wear a burqa.

August 23, 2010 at 8:23 pm |

Helli0n

it must be tough being superstitious, myself I believe in reality. and nothing good ever came from religion. Check history.

Not all Muslim women wear hijab. Some are conservative, some are moderate, and some not religious at all. People are people. Islam is not that much different from Christianity or Judaism. Christians and Jews are supposed to be modest too and not reveal too much skin. The American culture doesn't encourage that but there are still Jews and Christians who wear conservative clothing.

August 23, 2010 at 8:21 pm |

cottoncat

For pete's sake, leave them alone! If Arab women want to wear black sheets over their heads, it's their business.
If they don't want to, then let them deal with it their own way. The U.S. is not the greatest example of tolerance - in race, religion or political issues. First, we should clean up our own messes.

August 23, 2010 at 8:20 pm |

4wikiality

As a women, I have no problem with the hijab, but I am offended nigab. It is oppressive and has no place in Western culture which has made great strides to promote gender equality. If I went to Iran, I would be required by law to wear a Hijab in public even if I don't believe in Muslim views on modesty. I think it should therefore be a requirement in the North America as well as most of Europe to reveal your face in public, for identification purposes as well as public safety (take driving for instance, I don't think driving with the equivalent of a bag over your head is at all safe).

August 23, 2010 at 8:17 pm |

tigerchuong

Bravo. Right to the point. We should ban those face cover for public safety and identification.

August 24, 2010 at 7:08 am |

Leslie

"Instead, they say, they want to be judged by their intellect and personalities. They say it’s the reason they don’t show too much more."

Exactly what kind of positive personality or intellect does this garb communicate?

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.